The liver GSD is has been kept under cover far too long. Some breeders thought that another male had gotten to their female and the resulting brown looking puppy was a mutt. Others knew what they were and put them down as they did not want anyone to know they were producing anything other than traditional colored shepherds. However with the canine genomic project and strong breeders who stood their ground for this color of GSD, they are beginning to be seen in several countries.

I have always admired the Liver coloration and wanted to incorporate Liver into my breeding program. However I found it to be difficult in the beginning to find them especially with AKC full registration as the breeders that did allow them to live, only sold on limited registration for fear that they were not as healthy as their colored siblings. I came across a litter of 4 Liver female puppies and between myself and my best friend Dawn we rounded 3 of the 4 up and the last sister went to a fellow liver lover. My search was far from over. Since the liver gene is inherited autosomal recessive I had to find a male that carried liver or was liver himself. Finally I found an awesome 4 yr old male “Dutch” for sale. His owner drove him to my kennel and I was in love. He is a social, warm gentle giant.

Shortly after I found him, the liver pups arrived and I knew I wanted to go with Chocolate names for my liver shepherds as Chocolate is a much more flattering word for these majestically colored GSD.

I now own and/or co-own 10 liver GSD here at my kennel—click the names that are underlined

·Russell Stover—Liver/Tan Long Coat Male only related to his sis Toffifay

·Toffifay—Liver/Tan Long Coat Female only related to her brother ‘Russ’

·Swiss Miss—Liver Sable Long Coat —Carmella x Ghiradelli Daughter

·Nestle—Liver/tan Saddle Long Coat —Godiva x Willy Daughter

The Liver gene is an incomplete black color thus giving all areas of the GSD that would normally appear black be a chocolate color. This gene is recessive just like the white gene & the blue gene. This shade of chocolate ranges from a milk chocolate color (much like the color of this page) to a semi sweet dark chocolate color. Since this is a color and patterns are separate they can come in all patterns ~ saddle back, bi-color, sable, solids, and in the future we might see Panda pattern Livers.

Many well known GSD carry this liver gene and have produced outstanding liver colored GSD pups.

So if Chocolate is your forte’ then you have come to the right place
Pedigree’s available upon request

The goal with our Liver GSD matings is to increase the limited gene pool, create more liver carrier GSD, work to produce Isabella and to produce the color liver itself.

2 Blue GSD of unknown ancestry were bred together many years ago and as it turns out both of the blue parents were carrying the liver gene as well. The result of that litter produced blue colored puppies and Isabella colored puppies (the litter was not registered). However once the puppies were placed no further information on that litter or what they looked like as adults is known—there are no photo’s of an adult Isabella GSD.

If a Liver is bred to a Blue and neither carries the others color gene then all puppies will be traditional colored. If one or both carry the others color the colors are very pastel.

Genetically like Weimaraner coloration. We are embarking on a journey to making our own Isabella GSD, as well as expanding the liver and blue gene pool.

We are looking forward to meeting like minded people that want to work with the dilutes as well.

We are open to discussing medical and color questions for anyone interested. We can now send in DNA of any GSD to a lab and have it tested to see if it carries the ‘liver’ gene <<Vetgen>>.

The blue gene in the GSD is not fully understood in the terms of it’s ability or inability to stay as blue as the day they are born. It is a dilution of black however it does not breed ‘true’ meaning the puppies are born a very pretty shade of blue and many of them turn to almost like a Steele gray black as adults, which is where I say does not stay ‘true’ to it’s birth color. Some of the blues are born lighter and remain a little lighter as adults. However the ability to control the shade of blue and why it turns so dark on the adult GSD is a question we are hoping to get answered soon. You may hear the phrase Powder Blue and Steele Blue these terms refer to the shades of blue which refers to the depth of the blue color on the dogs coat. More on blue on the blue page.